Bakhtiyaris: it's time for official compassion

Page Tools

Used and abused, the Bakhtiyari boys speak out. But the enigma
remains.

IT SHOULD come as no surprise that the Bakhtiyari brothers
 Alamdar and Montazar  don't think much of the
Adelaide-based lawyers who represented their family or the intense
circle of refugee activists who said they spoke on their
behalf.

The Bakhtiyari cause was always a handy headline for those on
the front line fighting mandatary detention, an excuse for
activists and lawyers to resort to the tactics they accused the
Howard Government of in its treatment of asylum seekers.

Everything was fair game. Facts were exaggerated, critics
denigrated and the legal system shamelessly exploited. By
constantly forcing the Government into a corner, Bakhtiyari's legal
team, headed by Jeremy Moore, left no room for compromise.

As 14-year-old Montazar put it last week in an interview with
the ABC in Lahore, Pakistan: "The lawyers didn't really help our
family at all in the end and I would just like to say, on behalf of
my family, that they have nothing to do with my family any
more."

Alamdar, 16, was just as blunt: "The thing I want to say is,
first of all, I would like to say sorry to the Government. It was
all the advocates, all the lawyers forcing us to fight against the
Government."

But the ABC interview with the boys in Pakistan  a country
both Australian and Pakistani authorities insist they are citizens
of  raises as many questions as it provides answers to the
enigma of the Bakhtiyaris. The whereabouts of their mother, Roqia,
father, Ali, and their sisters, claimed to be living in Kabul,
remains secret.

The true history of this family is yet to be revealed. Afghan
authorities apparently determined that Roqia may have come
originally from the small village of Balaw Daoud in Afghanistan's
Ghazni province, but have offered no assurances for Ali because
documents he sent to prove his nationality were false.

Even if it can be proved that Roqia was born in Balaw Daoud
(interviews with her immediate relatives, such as her father,
stepmother and two stepsisters would be a starting point), that
wouldn't advance her case for political asylum.

Roqia always told Australian authorities she was born and raised
in Charkh, another village hundreds of kilometres west of Balaw
Daoud.

She testified under oath that she had never travelled outside
Charkh before she fled to Australia via Pakistan.

Roqia told the Refugee Review Tribunal she did not know the
names of any other villages or provinces because she had led a
sheltered life.

Various investigations have failed to find evidence that Roqia
or Ali lived in Charkh.

On the evidence now being presented by Alamdar and Montazar, the
Charkh story certainly appears to be a fiction created by people
smugglers to strengthen the family's claim for asylum in
Australia.

Both Montazar and Alamdar revealed a very different family
history to the one presented to Australian authorities. While they
deny ever living in Quetta, they say they travelled from country to
country.

Alamdar said: "Before we came to Australia, we stayed in
Islamabad for two to three years and my dad used to work in
Islamabad, then, before, we lived in Iran."

Because they lived for long periods outside Afghanistan their
case for political asylum was tenuous at best. As with hundreds of
thousands of displaced Afghans crossing the country's borders
seeking safety and work, it is possible the family holds dual
citizenship, which may explain why Pakistan is happy to claim them.
And it remains far from clear what Ali's origins are. The
possibilities are many.

So where does this leave the Bakhtiyaris? Immigration Minister
Amanda Vanstone has correctly ruled out any review of the case,
although there is an argument to be made for this family returning
to Australia, not as refugees but as migrants.

Given that they became the cannon fodder for lawyers and
activists in their battle with the Government; given also that the
children had no control over the decisions of their parents and
spent their formative years in detention, the Government is in a
position to dispense compassion. It should consider doing so.

Page Tools

SPONSORED LINKS

1128563035057-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/bakhtiyaris-its-time-for-official-compassion/2005/10/08/1128563035057.htmltheage.com.auThe Age2005-10-09Bakhtiyaris: it's time for official compassionRussell SkeltonUsed and abused, the Bakhtiyari boys speak out. But the enigma
remains.Opinion